Former Rural Bank Executives Charged with Bank Fraud and Lying to FBI
Minneapolis - Two former executives at the State Bank of Cokato were charged today in
federal court in connection with various loan fraud schemes. A criminal Information filed by the
U.S. Attorney’s Office charges the bank’s former president and director, Robert N. Aanenson, age
52, of Dassel, Minnesota, with one count of bank fraud and one count of making a false entry in a
bank report. A second Information charges the bank’s former executive vice president, Donald J.
Peroutka, age 63, of Cokato, Minnesota, with one count of lying to an FBI agent who was
investigating fraud at the bank.
According to the Information filed in the Robert N. Aanenson matter, Aanenson approved
a $65,000 loan to Moldserv, Inc., (“Moldserv”) in September of 2003 for the purported purpose of
providing the company with “working capital.” The Information alleges, however, that the loan was
not really for Moldserv. Rather, the Information states that the loan was actually intended to benefit
a company known as Plastic Solutions. Just three days after Moldserv received the loan proceeds,
$65,000 was transferred to Plastic Solutions. A portion of that money was then used to cover a
$47,802 deficit in Plastic Solutions’ checking account, which had been overdrawn for months. The
remainder of the money was used for other unauthorized purposes. No payments were ever made
on the loan, and in October of 2004, the bank wrote off the debt as uncollectible.
The charging document also alleges that in July of 2004, Aanenson directed a bank employee
to credit Plastic Solutions’ checking account with $92,669.17. At that time, the account was almost
$150,000 overdrawn. In addition, Aanenson directed the same bank employee to credit Moldserv’s
checking account with $10,242.10, which was the amount that account was overdrawn. Aanenson
offset these false transactions by having the bank’s prepaid expense account debited by $100,000
and the account for overdraft charges debited by $2,911.27. As a result of these actions, the bank’s
quarterly report to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, filed in October of 2004, was
inaccurate in that it failed to disclose a substantial loss.
The Information filed against Donald J. Peroutka alleges that he lied to an FBI agent about
a different loan fraud scheme in which he participated in the summer of 2003. According to that
charging document, Peroutka executed an authorization for a guaranteed Small Business
Administration (“SBA”) loan for a bank customer. As a condition of that guarantee, Peroutka
agreed in writing that the bank would ensure that the customer had put into her small business at
least $50,000 from other sources before the SBA loan was awarded. A short time later, however,
the bank loaned the customer the $50,000 necessary to inject into her business in order to meet the
SBA guaranteed loan requirements. That $50,000 loan was made with Peroutka’s knowledge and
consent, although the SBA did not know anything about it. Subsequently, the customer wrote a
personal check in the amount of $50,000 to her small business. Peroutka placed a copy of that check
in the customer’s bank loan file to verify her compliance with SBA requirements. When later
questioned about the matter, Peroutka falsely stated to a special agent with the Federal Bureau of
Investigation that he did not recall providing $50,000 in bank funds to the customer and that he did
not know where the customer obtained the $50,000.
If convicted of bank fraud and making a false entry in a bank report, Aanenson faces a
maximum potential penalty of thirty years in federal prison and a $1 million fine on each of those
two charges. Peroutka faces a maximum potential penalty of five years in federal prison and a
$250,000 fine if convicted of making a false statement to an FBI agent. Any sentences will be
determined by a judge.
This case is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Internal
Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations; and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office
of Inspector General. Assistant United States Attorney Hank Shea is prosecuting the case.
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